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The restrictive boundaries defined by society

A child is born with a brand new brain, innocent, unfettered, and free.
How quickly does society, from the primitive to the sophisticated, relieve this brand new human of such weighty burdens. From our first awakening we encounter stimuli and respond accordingly as determined by our perception of the present, our assessment of the future, or the impact of the past. The very first excitation establishes a point of reference. Call it "learning", call it "response", call it what ever you like, a reaction has occurred, conscious or not, and a boundary is formed; a delineation determining our path to the future. Could human life exist without these tethers? Not likely but if so, it would be without social configurations resulting in a dog eat dog world.

Our concept of what is good for the human animal is publicized and policed by the society in which we function. We are indoctrinated from the get go by what has been decided in the past as to what would best serve our interests for the future. We as adult individuals have not, in a liberated state, made this decision. We have come by it through conditioning administered by those who have graduated from the same process. And right or wrong, their own peculiar perceptions and assumptions will be part of the package. However, though this dogma may be handsomely packaged and expertly positioned in our receptive and curious minds, somewhere along the way we may rebel and through disenchantment abandon the pertinent society. But here is the rub. By the time we have learned that we have the freedom and the wherewithal to change our ideological address we will have become accustomed to, and even dependent upon, the perks, language, and customs of the very society that we can no longer endure. But still, through diligent use of will power and the purchase of a strong resolution, we may cast off the bonds of birth and charge another society with our fate. Well, what have we gained? A new set of rules, a new set of limited choices! What at first was the smell of fresh cut green grass on the other side of the fence eventually becomes the stench of those same browning weeds that we abandoned earlier. A rose is a rose and all that.
Freedom. No society can bestow freedom; it can only offer small, individually formatted chunks of license born of boundaries. We talk of freedom. We speak of it as a singularity without limits. We see it as a right, a gift from beyond the human spectacle. Not a minute offering from the hand of


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The restrictive boundaries defined by society

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    by Woody Biscoe

    A child is born with a brand new brain, innocent, unfettered, and free. How quickly does society, from the primitiv... read more

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